


Is This Really Love?

by PlutoApologist



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 01:32:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19074754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlutoApologist/pseuds/PlutoApologist
Summary: Two lesbians fake marrying for money plus broadway stars. What could go wrong?





	Is This Really Love?

Being drowned in college debt and having a lack of girlfriend was sadly the life of Emma Nolan right now. She would have preferred being drowned with affection from a girlfriend and having a lack of debt, but she had never really prayed to god before, so that was probably wasn’t going to happen. She stretched and yawned, looking at Alyssa typing furiously on a paper, her hunchback growing by the minute. Emma toed Alyssa with her feet, getting her an annoyed look. Emma grinned at her success at getting Alyssa to look away from her screen. Alyssa was used to this after years of friendship. Ever since their gaydars had found each other at college orientation, they had been best friends. but nonetheless reserved the right to be annoyed.  
“Emma please, this paper is important.”

“It’s due in a week Alyssa, you don’t have to start now.” Emma grinned a cheesy grin, getting up to peek over Alyssa’s shoulder to look at the screen. Alyssa felt warm suddenly. Something must be wrong with the heat in the dorms. “In Corporations We Trust: Consumer’s Blind Faith in Corporations. Ew. Gross. Sounds boring.”

“Not to me,” Alyssa said, a smile peeking through her tough exterior. Emma felt a flutter in her heart but locked it away with the thousands of other hints of crushes she had had over the years.

“It doesn’t even matter. We’re all gonna die in debt and get good for nothing jobs anyway.” Emma hopped off the bed and grabbed an ice cream container from Alyssa’s fridge. “We’d make more money from marrying rich.”

“Good luck with that,” Alyssa snorted. She eyed Emma as she looked lazily for a spoon. “Get me a spoon too. And stop taking my ice cream without asking.”

“Okay, we can make money from marrying and getting gifts from people,” Emma said, completely ignoring her comment about the ice cream. Emma hopped back up on the bed and started digging into the ice cream. She only relented and gave Alyssa her spoon until she stared at her for a few seconds. 

“Okay, I love Betsy, but she isn’t rich.”

“We’d be two lesbians marrying in Indiana. We could get some real rich assholes to come and give us some really good shit for their image, you know. Two lesbians marrying in Mike Pence’s hone state? That’s rich.” Alyssa stopped and look at Emma in shock, her spoon halfway to her mouth.  
“Um-hold up, us? You want you and me to fake marry?” Alyssa dropped her gaze, her cheeks red. “I just came out to my mom three months ago. Do you want me to give her a heart attack?”  
“It wouldn’t hurt her to loosen up a little bit.” Emma slyly said under her breath. Alyssa jabbed her with her elbow, making Emma drop her ice cream spoon. “I was joking. About both. That would be ridiculous.”

Even though they weren’t together, Emma felt a pang in her chest at her rejection. She took a long slow bite of ice cream, looking anywhere but Alyssa’s sensitive eyes. Alyssa bit her lip nervously. Alyssa had been there for breakdowns about her parents, her grandma’s health and tuition, but she didn’t know what to do with her quiet pain. 

“Emma, it’s nothing against you. I’d be honored to be your fake wife. I wish I could be as confident as you and live as out and proud. I just wish I didn’t still have one foot in the closet.” 

“I know and I’m proud of you for however much you can be out. You’re a rockstar and if you just could just get that one foot out of the closet, you could dance with girls at gay bars.” Alyssa laughed, despite the undeniable tension. Emma fidgeted with Alyssa’s blankets, flicking her eyes up to Alyssa’s. 

“I have a paper I forgot about. I’m gonna go.” Silence descended over them like a curtain coming down too early before the scene was over. 

“You don’t have to leave; we didn’t even get to watch anything. You said you wanted to watch Shrek.” Emma got her guitar and slung her backpack over her shoulder, shooting a fake smile over her shoulder. 

“Can’t waste that $18,000 dollar tuition, can I? I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” Emma walked out, her fake smile falling the moment the door shut. She clutched her flannel, anxiety and self-hate coursing through her veins. 

“Fuck!” Emma groaned, sliding down the brick wall next to the door. Her only friend she could be honest with and she had messed it up with a dumb joke. Who else would comfort her when she got a bad grade or laugh at bad movies with her? Who would stick with her losing track of conversations midway or be there to admire girls or vent to about being gay?

Too ashamed to move from her current position, Emma put in her headphones and put her playlist on shuffle. She sighed, relaxing into Dodie’s gentle vocals. She put her phone down flat as a call interrupted her music, cutting Dodie off sharply and her good mood subsequently. She would just end up venting to whoever called, and no one deserved that. The phone kept ringing and she relented. 

Emma relaxed, seeing it was Betsy. Her grandma could always put a smile on her face and was a wonderful distraction. If she had been able to distract her after she’d been kicked out by her parents, she could surely distract her now. Betsy knew full she was a lesbian disaster. Emma picked herself up, gathering her things and started toward her dorm. 

“Hello sweetheart.” Hearing Betsy’s voice was like hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night. It had been her beacon of light her whole life and she already felt her warmth. 

“Grandma. I missed you,” Emma admitted, a smile daring to try to make an appearance on her forlorn face. 

“I missed you too. The house isn’t the same without your music. I do actually have something important to talk about though.” Emma practically tripped over her feet in a panic. Calm breaths. Life is only as bad as you let it be.

“Money has been tight at the farm and I can’t squeeze any more out of your parent’s greedy pockets for your tuition. They never liked me, but I think me going to Pride with you broke any trust we had. I’m afraid you may not be able to keep going to college next summer.” Emma stopped numbly. The fall wind was hitting nothing but a living skeleton. Life was shit.

“But grandma, my plans- “

“Don’t worry, there’s always some money somewhere. I don’t know where, but I know there’s enough money hidden in the farm somewhere.” Emma could hear her grandma’s strained smile through the phone. Her heart ached, pulled too many directions to know what to do.

“I don’t want you to take it from the farm. You’ve worked too hard for that. Shit, you haven’t taken a vacation for years.” Emma’s voice was starting to choke up and the dam stopping a waterfall of tears from descending was weakening. Not even Betsy’s soft voice could make this sound good.

“Sweetie, you’re more important than some old piece of land. I can always find somewhere else to live. I can’t find a granddaughter whose voice is going to change lives.” Fuck it. The tears were coming. There was no use for dignity. Memories of growing up at the farm flashed through her mind. She had written love letters at the farm and cried to Betsy’s cows after particularly bad bullying.

“The farm isn’t just some old piece of land. It’s home. Isn’t there another option?” Emma sounded croaky and gross. She hated it. 

“Don’t worry about it. You know I can always find an answer for everything.” The wind whooshing on Betsy’s line grounded Emma some, enough to wipe the tears. Betsy let the silence fall heavy until it became unbearable. “I’ll give you some time to process. Call me if you need anything. And I mean anything.”

Emma walked back to her dorm in almost a trance, the news unreal. The news swum through her mind in hazy flashes. She was hardly able to sleep, plagued by dreams of the farm burning or being bulldozed or Betsy all by herself. Her pillow was wet in the morning, probably from tears, but she didn’t remember crying. She picked out the most comfortable clothes in the morning not caring what she looked like. It took all her energy to drag herself to class. Looking like a cryptid was hardly her concern. 

Alyssa had to tap her five times after class to get her attention. Alyssa looked at her hard, concern wrinkling her forehead. 

“You look like you slept on a brick. You slept through a lesson on mitosis.”  
“Mitochondria?” Alyssa laughed shortly, though concern played in her eye brows. 

Are you okay?” Emma shrugged, fiddling with her earbuds. Alyssa stopped her with a hand on her arm. Emma looked up sharply, the human version of heart eyes. Even though Alyssa stepped away, her heart still beat too fast. 

“Not really,” Emma cracked. She pursed her lips and looked at her shoes with interest. “Can we talk in my room?”

Alyssa nodded silently, plugged her earbuds in and offered one earbud to Emma. She took it with a grateful smile, though her head was still in a fog. 

It took a long time for Emma to settle into her room. Alyssa waited patiently the whole time on Emma’s creaky dorm bed, trying to make as little noise as possible. In the silence, the possibilities of what had happened got worse exponentially. Bad possibilities wormed themselves into her perfectly manicured mind. The silence was too much.

“Emma, you can trust me. What’s wrong?” Emma stood deadly still, except for her finger tapping out a racing beat on her legs. 

“I…might not be able to come next year. My parents will only pay what they have to, and grandma can’t afford everything.” Alyssa could feel her heart drop, like it was in quicksand. She had known one day they would be separated but she hadn’t thought it would be so soon. Alyssa got up and engulfed Emma in a gigantic hug, savoring her soft hair swaying gently by her cheek. Emma hugged back just as Alyssa started to pull away. They both chuckled awkwardly and took a step back. 

“A fake wedding might come in handy here,” Emma said nervously, rushing over her words to fill the space. She took in Alyssa’s thoughtful glance, desperately reminding herself that it was perfectly straight to admire your friend’s eyes. Her eyes lit up, a whole universe coming to life in Alyssa’s eyes. Emma looked away when Alyssa noticed her looking, her eyes too powerful to look at directly. 

“Emma Nolan, will you fake marry me?”


End file.
